By Carlos Mendez
Link
cmendez@star-telegram.com
Keith Brooking has heard plenty of coaches talk. It's part of the life of a football player, gathering around the coach on the field or paying attention in the meeting room.
But something about Jason Garrett grabbed him.
No notes.
"He sits up in front of our team, and he'll give a 15-, 20-minute speech, one of the better speeches I've ever heard in my life, with no notes," the veteran Dallas Cowboys linebacker said. "He doesn't skip a beat. Never a stutter. Never a hesitation. He's just very articulate.
"I've been with coaches before who get up there, and there's a lot said that doesn't need to be said."
And that says a lot about what Garrett has done in his short time as the head coach of the Cowboys. Despite no experience as a head coach and only five years as an assistant in the NFL, he has gotten the attention of his players.
He has hooked them with his organization, planning, research, detail and those talks. They are the tools Garrett is using to try to get the Cowboys to rebound from last year's 6-10 season, which included his promotion to interim head coach halfway through.
"I don't think there was any skepticism with Jason taking over halfway through our season," Brooking said. "From the very beginning, it was evident that he was destined to be in that position. His first time addressing our football team he did an unbelievable job."
The addresses to the team have become part of the Garrett identity. Every day in training camp, practice included a quick team huddle. The players gathered in a semicircle around the coach, and he laid out what was coming in the next part of practice or what he thought so far.
In the film room, his lessons include background. He'll go over a famous drive in NFL history and show the players something about every play.
"One day, he showed us the Patriots' Super Bowl where they lost to the Giants," linebacker Sean Lee said. "And he was pointing out little plays that make the difference. Finishing a certain play here. Getting out of bounds or keeping a guy inbounds, really mastering each situation and understanding that little plays like that can win a football game for you."
In the meeting rooms in training camp, Garrett talked to the players about what to expect off the field. He relayed the locations and hours of restaurants in San Antonio. Nearby malls. Where to get this or that. Where to park.
"He'll spend 20 minutes going over the dang logistics of where you eat and where your hotel room is just because he doesn't want an 'I-didn't-know,'" tight end Jason Witten said. "He's making decisions for this team to put us in the best chance to be successful. That's what I love about it. There's not all those other things you have to worry about. It's -- bam! -- you can be the best tight end you can be. You can be the best linebacker you can be."
Garrett's ideas about coaching come from several places, but many of them come from six men -- his father and three brothers, who were his first coaches and teammates; Jimmy Johnson, who took the Cowboys to two Super Bowls championships with Garrett as a backup; and former Miami Dolphins coach Nick Saban, who gave him his first NFL job as a quarterbacks coach.
"It's amazing the perspective you have -- being a coach's son, being a player -- of what coaches do and what organizations do," Garrett said. "I have notebooks, upon notebooks, upon notebooks of Nick Saban staff meetings....Literally I'd go in there, the other coaches would go in there, and we would listen about how we would do things. Everything. How you set up practices. How we conduct the draft. Really everything that you can think of we talked about in those meeting rooms, and he has a great perspective on it.
"We didn't do everything perfectly. He would admit that. But everything was well thought out."
It's hard to find someone surprised that Garrett is an NFL head coach. Yes, he turned down two offers three years ago. But even before that, former NFL television analyst John Madden saw it coming.
"I always thought that he's the guy who should go into football after he was through playing," Madden said. "There was a time when players would always talk about TV when they were done playing, going into TV, because there's so many opportunities there. I remember I talked to Jason while he was still playing, and I told him, 'You're not one of those guys. You're paid to stay in football.'"
Who knows where it will lead for the Cowboys? Who knows where it will lead for Garrett?
Madden wouldn't be surprised about anything.
"I think he could go all the way to any position in football, whether it's coaching to administration to running the league," he said. "I think he's that kind of guy with those kinds of capabilities."
Link
cmendez@star-telegram.com
Keith Brooking has heard plenty of coaches talk. It's part of the life of a football player, gathering around the coach on the field or paying attention in the meeting room.
But something about Jason Garrett grabbed him.
No notes.
"He sits up in front of our team, and he'll give a 15-, 20-minute speech, one of the better speeches I've ever heard in my life, with no notes," the veteran Dallas Cowboys linebacker said. "He doesn't skip a beat. Never a stutter. Never a hesitation. He's just very articulate.
"I've been with coaches before who get up there, and there's a lot said that doesn't need to be said."
And that says a lot about what Garrett has done in his short time as the head coach of the Cowboys. Despite no experience as a head coach and only five years as an assistant in the NFL, he has gotten the attention of his players.
He has hooked them with his organization, planning, research, detail and those talks. They are the tools Garrett is using to try to get the Cowboys to rebound from last year's 6-10 season, which included his promotion to interim head coach halfway through.
"I don't think there was any skepticism with Jason taking over halfway through our season," Brooking said. "From the very beginning, it was evident that he was destined to be in that position. His first time addressing our football team he did an unbelievable job."
The addresses to the team have become part of the Garrett identity. Every day in training camp, practice included a quick team huddle. The players gathered in a semicircle around the coach, and he laid out what was coming in the next part of practice or what he thought so far.
In the film room, his lessons include background. He'll go over a famous drive in NFL history and show the players something about every play.
"One day, he showed us the Patriots' Super Bowl where they lost to the Giants," linebacker Sean Lee said. "And he was pointing out little plays that make the difference. Finishing a certain play here. Getting out of bounds or keeping a guy inbounds, really mastering each situation and understanding that little plays like that can win a football game for you."
In the meeting rooms in training camp, Garrett talked to the players about what to expect off the field. He relayed the locations and hours of restaurants in San Antonio. Nearby malls. Where to get this or that. Where to park.
"He'll spend 20 minutes going over the dang logistics of where you eat and where your hotel room is just because he doesn't want an 'I-didn't-know,'" tight end Jason Witten said. "He's making decisions for this team to put us in the best chance to be successful. That's what I love about it. There's not all those other things you have to worry about. It's -- bam! -- you can be the best tight end you can be. You can be the best linebacker you can be."
Garrett's ideas about coaching come from several places, but many of them come from six men -- his father and three brothers, who were his first coaches and teammates; Jimmy Johnson, who took the Cowboys to two Super Bowls championships with Garrett as a backup; and former Miami Dolphins coach Nick Saban, who gave him his first NFL job as a quarterbacks coach.
"It's amazing the perspective you have -- being a coach's son, being a player -- of what coaches do and what organizations do," Garrett said. "I have notebooks, upon notebooks, upon notebooks of Nick Saban staff meetings....Literally I'd go in there, the other coaches would go in there, and we would listen about how we would do things. Everything. How you set up practices. How we conduct the draft. Really everything that you can think of we talked about in those meeting rooms, and he has a great perspective on it.
"We didn't do everything perfectly. He would admit that. But everything was well thought out."
It's hard to find someone surprised that Garrett is an NFL head coach. Yes, he turned down two offers three years ago. But even before that, former NFL television analyst John Madden saw it coming.
"I always thought that he's the guy who should go into football after he was through playing," Madden said. "There was a time when players would always talk about TV when they were done playing, going into TV, because there's so many opportunities there. I remember I talked to Jason while he was still playing, and I told him, 'You're not one of those guys. You're paid to stay in football.'"
Who knows where it will lead for the Cowboys? Who knows where it will lead for Garrett?
Madden wouldn't be surprised about anything.
"I think he could go all the way to any position in football, whether it's coaching to administration to running the league," he said. "I think he's that kind of guy with those kinds of capabilities."